Developmental Psychology

You're interested in the process of learning social categorization in early childhood. How do you go about exploring this topic? 

You can explore the topic by utilizing different types of resources as detailed below. This method can also be applied to any topic you choose. For additional help, please  contact Young-Joo at YLEE214@gmu.edu. 

Search the Mason catalog, using the term "social categorization". This will return more than 50,000 results. (To see those search results, click here.)

To limit the results further to just reference books, select "Reference Entries" from the list of filters on the left. Now you see less than 100 results. (To see those search results, click here.) 

Browse the results and pay attention to the titles of sources. Below  are examples of titles worth checking out out futher. 

• "Social Categorization" in The Sage Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development
• "Social Categorization" in A Dictionary of Psychology
• "Social Categorization and the Perception of Social Groups" in The Sage Handbook of Social Cognition

If you type "social categorization" in the Mason Search, you will get too many results even after applying filters. Let's add one more keyword for more focused results. 

"social categorization" AND "psychology"

To limit the results further to just books, select "Books" from the list of filters on the left. You will still see hundreds of titles, but some look very promising. (Click here to see the results.)

Below are some examples:

• McGarty, C. (2012) The Categorization Process in Social Psychology. Sage.
• Eckes, T. & Trautner, H. M. (2012). The Developmental Social Psychology of Gender. Psychology Press. 
• Rutland, A., Nesdale, D., & Spears, C. (2017). The Wiley Handbook of Group Processes in Children and Adolescents.Wiley-Blackwell.

To find journal articles, your search has to be more specific. Try to formulate a research question such as the following. 

Research question: How does children's social categorization influence their development of bias?

Database: PsycInfo

Search terms: "social categorization" and "bias or prejudice or stereotype"

(To replicate the search results, click here.)

To limit the results to childhood studies, select childhood from the Age filter. 

Other filters you can use are:

• "Academic Journals" under the Source Type filter 
• "Empirical Study" under the Methodology filter

Examples: Below are some promising options to check out:

Children's Implicit Attitudes toward Targets Who Differ by Race and Gender

Preschool Children's Attention to Environmental Messages about Groups: Social Categorization and the Origins of Intergroup Bias

Does Social Categorization Affect Toddlers' Play Preference?: an Experimental Test